Page 98 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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In the field of medicine, the Mission's influence in

bringing about improved standards of personal hygiene and

ptiblic sanitation was considerable if such accounts as those

provided by Z?.hra Freeth and -James Belgrave are to be trusted.

In Kuwait the I-Iission had provided the only hospital from 1S11
to 1949 and was still providing personnel in an advisory capa­

city to help develop the state medical service. In Iraq, the
*
Mission had treated millions of patients at its hospitals in

Ba3ra.l1 (1910-1926) and Anar ah (1926-1958). In Sa.udi Ara.bia,
and parts of the Trucial States, the Ilission had provided in­

valuable medical assistance through its touring program from

the end of the First World War until the advent of oil. In

Bahrain, the Mission had built the Gulf's first hospital and
was still a major factor in the country's health program with

its well-staffed and well-run 200 bed hospital. In Muscat, the

Mission was still the primary source of medical cere for a

country that was suffering from numerous diseases and major

health problems. In all, judging from the figures provided

in the quarterly reports from the missionaries in the field,

from 1889 to 1975 the Arabian Mission had provided medical

treatment to over twelve and a half milli0*1 patients - no

mean accomplishment in its own right for a small group of some

ninety men and women.

Ferhaps in the long run, Paul Harrison's explanation,

that despite the lack of conversion the work in service of

justification, best describes
the Arabs had become its own

how the Arabian Mission finally come to look on itself. Cer-